‘I’d rather have a dictator’: Tensions high as Trump teases becoming a dictator for the second time this week

For someone who claims not to be a dictator, Donald Trump sure is talking about being one a lot. Whatever your political views, nobody can deny that Trump is expanding the powers of the president like nobody else in recent history.

He issues edicts by executive order, disregards judicial orders, and is currently engaged in a military campaign against Democrat-controlled cities under the guise of fighting crime. Yesterday, Trump came right out and said, “I have the right to do anything I want to do.” I mean, how much more dictator-y do you want him to be?

Now, Trump is teasing that maybe the American people want him to be a dictator. It’s easy to figure out his thought process: what harm could there possibly be in giving the American people what they “want”:

Trump: "The line is that I'm a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, 'You know, if that's the case, I'd rather have a dictator.'" pic.twitter.com/YZlFDZs9lq

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 26, 2025

“The line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime. So a lot of people say, ‘You know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator.”

Classic dictator argument

This is a classic tune that’ll be familiar to any student of history. Dictators never state that they seized power for personal ambition. They calmly explain that they were effectively “forced” to assume supreme power in response to external factors.

That’s what Trump is doing with crime right now: painting the nation as a lawless hellhole that needs him to assume dictatorial powers to help innocent people.

Many are enthusiastically cheering this on, but they’re whooping and hollering at the death of America as we know it. As countries around the world and throughout history have discovered, once you let the authoritarian dictatorship genie out of the bottle, it’s extremely hard to stuff it back inside.

Few leaders willingly relinquish powers they’ve seized, so the system of checks and balances that have ensured no single individual can warp the United States as they see fit will now likely last way beyond this 79-year-old president’s lifespan. That prospect should unnerve both Republicans and Democrats going forward.

But, whatever the case, whether Trump ever actually openly calls himself a dictator or King, he has the powers of one, so what’s the difference? It’s depressing to say, but it’s Trump’s America now. You only live in it.